ChnS313FD672KaiYuanTongBaoCa.618900AD.jpg
Chinese money during the Tong Era; help better economy


Document: Ties That Bind: Paths to Power


Author – Who created this? What do we know about the author? What might influence their opinions?
  • Wu Bao who a high official
  • letter is hope to win his advancement in the imperial bureaucracy
Place – Where and when was it created -
  • Tang and Song Dynasty
Prior Knowledge
What do we know about where this was created? What have we learned about this topic? Society that may be relevant?
  • Tang and Song Dynasty help revived China after a point of no advancement
  • Strong titles were usually pass down by blood
  • Imperial System in China was a growing importance
Audience
Who is the intended audience? How might they receive this? – quotes to support your claims?
  • The people on making the decision for him to advance in the bureaucracy
  • persuasion letter ; “To my great good fortune, we share the same native place, and your renown for wise counsel is well known to me”
Reason for Creation
What is the purpose of this document? Read between the lines, support claims with a quote
  • The reason to create this was to advance in his social level and to have a better reputation as a person. The person would also have a bigger salary. “I, in my youth devoted myself to study”
  • The confidence to advance
The Main Idea
Support with quotes
The main idea of this idea is that the China bureaucracy depends more on family connections instead of the amount of intelligence. People would advancement more due to connections, “My native place is thousands of miles away”
Significance
How does this relate to the big picture? What can it tell us as historians? Relate to ESPIRIT if possible
The significance of this is that it shows how the Chinese beauracy would work. As it was expanding, people depended more on family ties rather then knowledge. Its shows how people would work during the Tang and Song Eras.






The Tang and Song Dynasty of China revive to a time when China was once great. Economy of China better the economy with taxes for there to be a flow of money to the imperial government. The people were all tax the same way and peasants would grow crops that allow people to trade. In China, the people open up the trade routes and the isolationist idea decrease. Merchants start to go to places to go trade instead of having people come to them. Cities became filled with markets and stalls and this shows economy is blooming for the Chinese. Flying Money was created for the people and it help regulate the money flow in the empire.
Social Class is became highly based on the scholar-gentry class and the upper class of people. Men would participate in becoming the scholar-gentry where they are basically the village leader – the person villagers look up too. However the scholar-gentry became more and more lazier because the people were allow to rise into the upper class but not actually do anything. Connections between family was more important compared to intellectual skill. Upperclassmen were distinguished by dress-code and it was continued through both dynasties. Women still was recognized for male dominance when women bounded their feet. When bounded feet, women was basically at man’s control.
Politics in China was the bureaucratic system that the Chinese favors. Ministries of Rites was created for increasing the educated men of China and was given the title jinshi when graduated. With the increase of scholar-gentry, China got strong with regional power. However during the Song dynasty, people just became more and more corrupt with loyalty to the emperor causing the power to weaken.
Intellectual life revived in China when most of the intellectual was based on religion. During the Tang dynasty, complex architectural structures were made, along with focusing on science a literature. When the Song dynasty came along, intellectual idea became more based on Confucianism ideas instead of the Buddhism ideals. The upper class look down upon Buddhism and destroyed monstrosities built just for it – also because tax was not place on religious areas.
Interactions in China did not increase because of their isolationist mind. People continue to believe that the Chinese was able to sustain themselves. Nomadic alliances provided expansions for the empire. New technology was created for expansions because with the creation of the gunpowder it help with defense and expansions. The inventions create was mainly use for their advantage because with nomads surrounding the empire, the people use it protect or use it with the nomads.